FASA Founder Comments On Microsoft Acquisition

FASA Interactive founder Jordan Weisman has commented on his studio being closed by Microsoft and how the acquisition destroyed the development culture of the firm and almost did the same to Halo developer, Bungie:

“When Microsoft bought FASA Interactive and incorporated it into Microsoft… the two reasons they bought us was, one, they wanted the catalogue of intellectual properties and, two, they felt that we had developed a really good development culture. And the reality is that, pretty much from the day we moved to Redmond, that development culture was destroyed. I don’t think the studio ever really had a chance. It was destroyed right in the beginning."

“When we were acquiring Bungie, they wanted me to sit down with the owners of Bungie and tell them how well the transition went, and it was like - ‘what planet are you guys on?’ This transition did not go well. And actually I became the lead vocal pain in the ass to get things done very different for Bungie."

“I tried to convince them to leave Bungie in Chicago, but not winning that I did succeed in getting them to put them in a walled off room, which didn’t follow any of the other Microsoft stuff. We were much better able to defend Bungie’s culture than we were FASA’s culture.”

Weisman is currently in talks with Piranha on a new MechWarrior title, looking at a Crimson Skies remake and getting back some of his IP from Microsoft.

Source: GI